Friends guest star reflects on "insane" lack of diversity on hit sitcom

All seems well at first, but Chandler is later concerned to witness Eddie's increasingly erratic behaviour, including his refusal to move out despite being repeatedly asked.

Friends remains massively popular to this day, but there has been criticism of some of its jokes and its lack of diversity, which Goldberg acknowledged in an interview with The Independent that marked the show's 30th anniversary.

"In terms of diversity, looking back, it seems insane," he began. "I’ve heard Black people speak about this and it’s like, you never expected to see yourself, so when you didn’t, it was not a surprise, and you ended up identifying to characters, irrespective of their race."

Goldberg opined that the lack of diversity in Friends was not a flaw specific to the sitcom, but rather an industry-wide problem in American television at the time.

"It was just the norm that there was such a lack of diversity... The entire culture was like that, and television was just an amplification of that culture," he explained.

Correcting that is an ongoing process, with steps taken in recent years to improve diversity in entertainment – both behind and in front of the camera – as well as to cast screen roles with greater accuracy.

Previously, it was common for characters to be 'whitewashed' in film or television adaptations. Additionally, actors of a certain ethnic group would sometimes be cast as characters from a completely different group, as Goldberg recalls.

"I spent a lot of my career complaining about how Italians can play Jews," he said. "You see De Niro play Jews but you very rarely see someone who’s a known Jewish actor playing Italian, so that’s where my head was at."

Goldberg has Jewish heritage on his father's side, while his mother is of mixed European and Mexican descent, which resulted in him being told he was not "all-American" enough to play some roles early in his career.

"If you were to say that to somebody now, you’d probably be fired," he said.

Goldberg went on to share memories of acting opposite Friends star Matthew Perry, with whom he shared most of his scenes on the show, following the actor's sudden death last year.

He added: "When you’re working with somebody like Matt, who has such great comedy chops, your game just gets elevated.

"I remember just joking around a lot, having a lot of really quick repartee... I’m so happy to be part of the show’s legacy."

Friends is available to stream on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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